Major Headache? Seven Common Migraine Triggers
(Published: 1-23-08, ABCNews.com) Dr. Steven Silberstein, director of the Jefferson Headache Center, discusses some of the
common triggers for migraines, with ABC News.
Department of Neurology
Jefferson Headache Center
Media Coverage
ABCNews.com
Implant to Fight Epilepsy
(Published: 1-20-08, 6 ABC) Drugs developed in recent years have been a big help in controlling epileptic seizures. But what
if something could forecast, and largely stop, those seizures? That's the promise of a device now in tests at Jefferson Hospital
for Neuroscience.
Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center
Department of Neurology
Department of Neurological Surgery
Media Coverage
6 ABC
Jefferson Scientists Make Progress Studying Cancer Gene
(Published 1-19-08, KYW Newsradio) Scientists in Philadelphia are making progress in understanding a group of genes known
to predict which cancer tumors will be aggressive and likely to spread.
Dr. Steven McMahon, associate professor of Cancer Biology at Jefferson Medical College and Jeffersonbs Kimmel Cancer Center,
says that understanding what genes do can help scientists treat or cure cancers. His group has been studying one gene which
is part of a sequence of 11 known to predict which tumors will be aggressive and spread quickly. His group discovered that
the gene makes an enzyme.
Within a few years we might have very specific drugs that attack the activity of this enzyme and turn it off in those forms
of cancer that are highly aggressive and prone to relapse and metastasize.
Cancer Biology
Media Coverage
KYW Newsradio
Sleep Apnea Surgery
(Published 1-14-08, Ivanhoe) Imagine waking up not once or twice, but dozens, or even hundreds of times overnight. People
who suffer from sleep apnea may not remember the sudden awakenings, but they still take a serious toll on their health. "We
know that people with sleep apnea have a higher mortality rate than people who do not have sleep apnea," says Karl Doghramji,
M.D., Medical Director of Jefferson Sleep Disorder Center in Philadelphia, Penn.
Sleep Disorders Center
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Media Coverage
Ivanhoe TV
ABC 12 (Michigan)
Competence and Capacity in Alzheimer's Disease
(Published 1-11-08, Legal Intelligencer) Dr. Barry W. Rovner, director of clinical Alzheimerbs disease research at the Farber
Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University, discusses how to assess whether a person with Alzheimer's disease
have sufficient capacity, or competence, to execute legal documents.
Currently, five million people in the United States have AD and their number will triple in the next three decades. This will
confront lawyers with frequent questions about their clients' competence regarding testamentary capacity, powers of attorney,
guardianship, contracts and financial management.
Farber Institute for Neurosciences
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Department of Neurology
Media Coverage
Legal Intelligencer
Jefferson Specialists Perform High Tech Surgery to Safely Remove up to 75 Percent of Cancerous Livers
New surgical tools spare transfusion, cut recovery time in half
(Published 1-10-08, Ivanhoe) Transplant surgeons at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH) are using a new method called
“bloodless” liver resection to safely remove up to 75 percent of the largest organ inside the human body. The technique is
improving patients’ odds and cutting recovery time in half.
Cataldo Doria, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Transplantation at TJUH, and associate professor of Surgery at Jefferson
Medical College, has performed hundreds of liver procedures. But his two newest surgical tools are making an amazing difference
for patients with localized liver cancer and other liver diseases.
Dr. Doria removed 60 percent of patient Beng Lin's liver using the new technique. Lin was up and walking around 24 hours
after surgery.
"I guess I consider myself one of the lucky ones," Lin says.
Doctors say he had such a speedy recovery because he lost virtually no blood during the procedure. Instead of using a scalpel
to cut the liver tissue, Dr. Doria is now using a new device called a cavitational ultrasonic surgical aspirator, or CUSA,
to aspirate or suck out diseased liver cells. Another surgeon follows immediately with a second tool called a TissueLink.
Hot, sterile water flows through the tip of this probe and seals the blood vessels upon contact.
Six months after surgery, Lin is cancer-free and feeling better than ever.
Click on the links below for more information on the procedure and new surgical tools being used at Jefferson.
View the video
Media Coverage
Ivanhoe Broadcast News
WPTV-TV (West Palm Beach, FL)
MSNBC.com
USAToday Online
News 8 Austin
Research Yields Clues to Recurrent Prostate Cancer
(Published 01-02-08, HealthDay) Cancer researchers have identified a link between a cellular signaling protein and the hormone
androgen that could play a role in hormone-resistant prostate cancer.
According to researchers at Jefferson’s Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia, the protein Stat5 is turned on in almost all
recurrent prostate cancers that are resistant to hormone therapy. Writing in the January issue of Cancer Research, the researchers
also reported that Stat5 could work with cellular receptors for the hormone androgen in cases of recurrent prostate cancer.
“These findings validate Stat5 as a potential drug target in prostate cancer, and in particular, in a form of prostate cancer
for which there are no effective therapies,” said Marja Nevalainen, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of cancer biology.
Cancer Biology
Media Coverage
HealthDay
Washington Post
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UPI
Pain Management
(Published 01-01-08, ABCNews.com) Eugene Viscusi, M.D., Director of Acute Pain Management Services, Thomas Jefferson University
Hospital, is featured this month on ABC News' web site project "On Call," responding to questions about common pain problems
and how to treat them.
Department of Anesthesiology
Media Coverage
ABCNews.com
ABCNews.com
